So essentially even the so-called 'scientific museum' was a sham/lie and the experiments they showed-off were made up. The real equator is nearby, but not where they said it was.
A positive implication: all the mapping that is done to higher accuracies (<10m) is meaningful. On 26 January 2011 11:11:00 UTC+13, john <j...@jfeldredge.com> wrote: > My understanding (which may not be correct) is that civilian GPS units are > supposedly now as accurate as the military units in terms of latitude and > longitude, but are deliberately much less accurate at altitude readings. > > -------Original Email------- > Subject :[OSM-talk] military vs consumer GPS and the equator > From :mailto:geojoeli...@gmail.com > Date :Tue Jan 25 16:02:29 America/Chicago 2011 > > > Not too long ago I was in Ecuador at the "Mitad del Mundo" and noticed a > fairly significant discrepancy between my own GPS and an official marker. > The Mitad del Mundo is a monument setup to mark the equator, after which > Ecuador is named. Obviously the equator is a line, but this is a single > monument at an arbitrary longitude, not far from the capital city all the > same - don't ask me why. > > > The monument is erected where they thought the equator was, before being > able to measure this accurately. A few hundred metres away is a museum > where the 'actual' equator is, supposedly measured with a 'military GPS' for > extra accuracy. There are tricks there, such as egg-balancing on watching > the water go down the sink in different directions - supposedly induced by > the coriolis effect. > > > The problem is my consumer GPSes (a Garmin GPSMap 60Csx and an HTC Magic > running Android) thought that the equator was about 30-40m away from where a > 'military GPS' had supposedly measured it and where these equatorial tricks > were being performed. When I walked to where they thought the equator was, > it run through the middle of a nearby road and car park. > > > Had they just placed the museum in a more convenient place than the middle > of the nearby road (which couldn't be moved)? Or is this sort of > discrepancy known and accepted? Didn't Clinton turn the encryption off some > of the accuracy bits of the GPS signal at some stage (making military vs > consumer less important)? _______________________________________________ > talk mailing list > talk@openstreetmap.org > http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk > > > -- > John F. Eldredge -- j...@jfeldredge.com > "Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly > is better than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria >
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